This article needs to be updated.(September 2018) |
A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as the PlayStation TV and OnLive Game System, are Android-based digital media players that are bundled with gamepads and marketed as gaming devices. Such microconsoles can be connected to the television to play video games downloaded from an application store such as Google Play.
Microconsoles came about in the early 2010s, shortly after the rise of mobile gaming on smartphones and tablet devices from 2008. These units were seen as a means to marry the idea of home video game consoles with smartphone and tablet gaming, taking advantage of the large library of games already available for the Android operating system. [1] While OnLive's MicroConsole brought the name "microconsole" to the field, the term "microconsole" was more widely adapted to describe these units as a whole as it mirrored the concept of microcomputers of the 1970s and 1980s compared to mainframes and minicomputers. Just as microcomputers represented low-cost, less powerful, and smaller form-factor versions of their larger equivalents, microconsoles tend to be similarly available at lower cost using cheaper computation hardware and packaged in smaller systems. In some cases, these packages were small enough to be encased into handheld controllers. [2] [3]
In late 2010, cloud gaming startup OnLive released MicroConsole, a television adapter and wireless gamepad that connects the company's video game streaming service to televisions. [4] VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi described the device as representing the company founder's "vision to turn the video game industry upside down" as an inexpensive console providing "high-end games on low-end hardware" that could eliminate the cycle of regular consumer hardware upgrades. [5] [6] The MicroConsole TV adapter was produced at a loss. [6] OnLive's MicroConsole made the company an early leader in the nascent microconsole field. [7]
Amidst a "new war for TV" in the consumer electronics industry, [8] an inexpensive and simple Android-based video game console designed for televisions called Ouya was announced for crowdfunding in July 2012. The Ouya was an overnight success and raised $8.5 million. [9] [10] Significant interest in low-cost Android console gaming followed Ouya's success, [11] [12] [13] spurred by the mobile games industry growth. [7] [14] The industry began to refer to the resulting consoles as alternative consoles, or microconsoles. [15]
Polygon reported that Android "consoles" were best-in-show at the January 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, citing devices like the MOGA Pro, Green Throttle Games Atlas controller, Nvidia Shield, and news of Valve's Steam Machine, a non-Android console. [16] [12] [17] Following Ouya's success, other similar set-top Android gaming devices were announced as direct competitors, including the GameStick in early 2013, [18] [19] [20] GamePop in May 2013, [21] and Mad Catz's MOJO in June 2013. [22] Forbes's Daniel Nye Griffiths referred to Ouya and GameStick's close release dates as the microconsole field's first "showdown". [7] The GamePop and MOJO announcements in the early summer referred to the devices as "microconsoles". [23] [24]
The PlayStation TV (known in Asia as the PlayStation Vita TV) is a microconsole announced in September 2013 at a Sony Computer Entertainment Japan presentation. [25] [26] [27] It was released in Japan on November 14, 2013 and in North America on October 14, 2014.
Gamasutra called Ouya, GameStick, and GamePop "console alternatives" that represent "a potential new market space for developers". [28] Tadhg Kelly, writing for Edge , called 2013 "the year of the microconsole", citing less consumer need for traditional console power, the low price of microconsole manufacture, increased system compatibility for easier game development, and more developer freedom from console business interests. [3] Microconsole promises of a less restrictive platform are expected to empower independent game developers. [17] [29] Kelly referred to the "deliberately small" microconsoles as "the netbooks of the console world", not intended to compete with big video game consoles. [30] Other reviewers called the microconsoles competitors, though not a threat, and referred to a crowded "non-traditional console space" as a disadvantage. [13] Kelly added that Ouya is heavily focused on the early adopter audience and its interests, and that Ouya's "natural advantage" of price has not been communicated effectively. [30] Edge questioned possibilities of microconsole success due to competition within the field as well as from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft's new consoles. [31]
The pre-release Ouya was panned by early reviewers. [32] The Verge called it unfinished, [33] and in a later review, Eurogamer questioned why consumers would purchase a console that duplicated the functionality of smartphones they already had. [9]
The video game industry saw Apple's Apple TV as potential microconsole competition due to the company's experience in the mobile games market. [34] [35] [30] Polygon reported in January 2013 that the Apple TV "continue[d] to be dangerously close to upending the mobile gaming space" and speculated that an Apple TV App Store could spark "a rush of games to the television". [16] As of 2023, no such rush has manifested.
Razer Inc. is an American-Singaporean multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, financial services, and gaming hardware. The company was founded in 1998 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff. It is dual headquartered in the one-north subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, and Irvine, California, US.
The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006. Each new console introduced new technologies. The Xbox 360 offered games rendered natively at high-definition video (HD) resolutions, the PlayStation 3 offered HD movie playback via a built-in 3D Blu-ray Disc player, and the Wii focused on integrating controllers with movement sensors as well as joysticks. Some Wii controllers could be moved about to control in-game actions, which enabled players to simulate real-world actions through movement during gameplay. By this generation, video game consoles had become an important part of the global IT infrastructure; it is estimated that video game consoles represented 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in 2007.
PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a division of Sony; the first PlayStation console was released in Japan in December 1994, and worldwide the following year.
Eat Sleep Play, Inc. was an American video game developer, formed in 2007 by Scott Campbell and David Jaffe, director of the Twisted Metal series and God of War. Eat Sleep Play entered into an exclusive platform deal with Sony requiring the completion of either three console/handheld games or three years of development time, with plans to release its first original game in 2010. The first game released by Eat Sleep Play was a port of the PSP game Twisted Metal: Head On that was retitled as Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition for PlayStation 2 and was not one of the three game console exclusive deal.
OnLive was a provider of cloud virtualization technologies based in Mountain View, California. OnLive's flagship product was its cloud gaming service, which allowed subscribers to rent or demo computer games without installing them on their device. Games were delivered to OnLive's client software as streaming video rendered by the service's servers, rather than rendered locally by the device.
The 2010s was the fifth decade in the industry's history. The decade was notable for producing the first truly "3D" games and consoles, introducing cloud gaming and virtual reality to consumers, and the rising influence of tablet-based and mobile casual games, including a boom in freemium titles. The industry remained heavily dominated by the actions of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. The eighth generation of video game consoles was released, including the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo 3DS. Notable games released in the decade included Minecraft, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, Dark Souls and God of War.
The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017.
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in Europe, South America and Australia, and on February 22, 2014 in Japan. A console of the eighth generation, it competes with Microsoft's Xbox One and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch.
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The Ouya, stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to put together the engineering team. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising US$8.5 million, becoming one of the website's highest earning projects in its history.
The GameStick is a discontinued home video game console developed by PlayJam. It is a microconsole the size of a USB flash drive that plugs directly into the back of a TV through an HDMI port and ships with its own Bluetooth controller. Users can download content from a curated storefront via Wi-Fi, with content stored locally for offline access. The device is powered by the PlayJam Games Platform and runs its own version of the Android operating system. It is portable and aimed at casual to mid-core gamers. Like the Ouya, it was funded through Kickstarter.
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MOJO, stylized as M.O.J.O., is an Android-based video game microconsole manufactured by Mad Catz.
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The PlayStation TV, known in Japan and other parts of Asia as the PlayStation Vita TV or PS Vita TV, is a microconsole, and a non-handheld variant of the PlayStation Vita handheld game console. It was released in Japan on November 14, 2013, and Europe and Australia on November 14, 2014.
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